Sprinting

A lot of exercises are considered the basics, an a lot of them are probably invaluable. But one exercise- well its not an exercise per say but- one exercise that gets little to no attention is sprinting. I know there are a lot of guys out there (read crossfitters) who will jump for joy when I say sprints are basic and under rated. On the other hand there is an opposing group of 'heavy lifters' who will not agree sprinting is basic. They will say, do circuits, reduce your rest intervals between exercises etc etc. Well, to be fair those methods do work, but ultimately if all you do is lift weights, you will get good exactly at that- lifting weights.

Many people seem to think that somehow the strength (and endurance) you gain from lifting will magically transfer to all other activities. Well guys, its basic and its called the principle of specificity. You get good at what you practice. That being said, your musculature does get stronger. What your body really needs to learn is how to use all that strength. In essence, the principle of specificity is basically a neuro-muscular phenomenon, where the nervous system uses the strength of the muscles in order to do certain things. Thus, for any other activity, if the muscles involved are strong, you already have the strength to perform it- you just need to teach your body how.

Moving fast is one of things the body does not get enough of when you lift weights. Yes, there is rising awareness about this as systems like the dynamic effort method are taking root. The increased interest in the Olympic lifts and speed work in general is heartening. But once again, you are getting the body used to moving fast in the movements you are already used to. Not to mention that most people DO NOT consciously make an effort to move the concentric part of exercises as fast as they can. At any rate, even doing this all the time is a huge drain on the nervous system. And to be fair, even the dynamic effort lifts need quite a bit of setting up, like chains or resistance bands to counter the acceleration. And some, like jumping barbell squats, are just painful.

One of the simplest ways to get out of a training rut, or to make your strength more functional (we will get back to this), or to fire your nervous system or to stimulate the fast twitch muscle fibers or to lose fat or to improve cardiovascular fitness or to correct posture or to strengthen joints is to sprint FAST for SHORT (40-50m) distances. Even if you do 5 sprints its enough. Treat it like you treat the Olympic lifts- keep the volume low and keep the intensity high.

Sprinting increases the testosterone discharge and stimulates the nervous system. These two things by themselves lead to increased gains in size and strength.

Sprinting is SUPREMELY FUNCTIONAL. The core muscles have to stabilize the body like crazy, making it the best core workout around. Much better than standing on a Bosu Ball. The increased speed has a great deal of carryover to a whole load of movements. You learn to move yourself, you learn to stop, you learn to accelerate and your learn to be agile. These few characteristics pretty much carry forward to anything. The only thing that is left is changing direction and you can train that too by just running 20m one way and 20 m the other. The muscles involved in proper all out sprinting cover pretty much the entire body. Its a bang for your buck explosive movement. Even more than the jumping squat.

Too many power lifters and bodybuilders just are not used to moving their own bodies at that pace. All of them could use a little body movement, but they are too attached to moving weight to do that. That is why stuff like prowlers and the Turkish get up have become so popular in recent years. People just need the ego boost of moving a certain weight. I am not saying prowlers or Turkish get ups are bad- on the contrary they are fantastic exercises. All I am saying is, why don't you just Sprint instead- IT IS FREE, NEEDS NO EQUIPMENT and frankly is a BETTER EXPLOSIVE MOVEMENT for the lower body. Yes, the prowler and the Turkish get up work the upper body too, but frankly they don't work the upper body dynamically- which is kind of the whole point anyway. If you want to talk about the best dynamic upper body exercise I would say it is the muscle up done with minimal leg assistance- provided it does not hurt your elbows. But this will be the subject of a different post. 

Probably nothing stimulates the Fast Twitch muscle fibers like sprinting does. It is just about as fast as your body can move. Plus the stretch reflex is trained powerfully by sprinting. The shock of the impact trains the ligaments and the joints.

I don't think I have to explain how sprinting develops the cardiovascular system, burns fat and conditions the entire body. The amount of fat the body burns through intense exercise is much greater than traditional cardio. The high intensity pumps the cardiovascular system and develops the lungs.

Sprinting properly stretches the front of the thigh (the hip flexors) due to the high degree of hip extension. Due to the same reasons the glutes fully contract during sprinting. Both these factors combined to together correct posture, fixing problems like lumbar lordosis and anterior pelvic tilt. Also it is the best exercise around for both the glutes and the calves. The glutes because they are predominantly fast twitch and are the prime movers in running. The calves because their prime function is to sustain eccentric impact. There is probably no better exercise for the calves than sprinting.

So how do you sprint and how much to sprint?

The 5 keys to sprinting are-
1. Contract the glutes and relax the body
2. Sit back with your torso upright when you run
3. Don't waste energy by unnecessary movement
4. Run toes first
5. Concentrate on pushing backwards with your hips. In order to do this you will have to pull your knees up high.

Just like power movements, you don't need to train the sprint with high volumes. Train twice a week with 5-10 sprints with 2-3 mins between sprints. You can reduce the rest intervals if you want to focus on conditioning. Just start sprinting, and see how your body responds. Adjust the volume to suit your body type.
Just start sprinting. It will do wonders for your body! And will fresh you up like nothing else.